Mumbai Indians overcome De Villiers, Wiese for first win

The Royal Challengers Bangalore chase was definitely fantastical at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in IPL 2015 on Sunday night. When confronted by a big total like Mumbai Indians' 209 for 7, one would expect the team batting second to go for big shots from the word go but what transpired was quite surreal. The 18-run defeat may suggest that Royal Challengers Bangalore fought till the end but to tell the truth, the match was effectively over for them at 62 for 3 in the 11th over.

AB de Villiers' 11-ball 41 and IPL debutant David Weise's 25-ball 47* breathed plenty of life into the chase but even their efforts were not enough to make up for the slow start from the home team's top order. Virat Kohli's men could only manage 191 for 7 to give Mumbai Indians their first win of the season in five matches.

Manvinder Bisla, playing his first game in IPL 2015, accompanied Chris Gayle to open instead of Kohli and the move totally backfired. Mitchell McClenaghan and Lasith Malinga bowled beautifully giving no boundary balls and the mounting pressure led to Bisla's departure for 20 off the bowling of Harbhajan Singh, playing his 100th IPL game. Gayle's misery continued to grow despite being dropped twice. Frustrated by a lack of big shots, he at last decided to leave his crease and hit Harbhajan for a six but the wily offspinner kept the ball a bit short and cleaned him up for a 24-ball 10. Kohli too had an unforgettable outing and despite doing his best he could only manage a run-a-ball 18.

Harbhajan had a very good day at the office and with the wicket of Rilee Rossouw later he also recorded the distinction of taking 100 IPL wickets.

Mumbai Indians played well to break their losing streak but Royal Challengers Bangalore's batting order that saw Dinesh Karthik coming ahead of de Villiers was equally to blame for the defeat.

Desperate for a win, Mumbai Indians did what was required of them after being put in to bat. Led by Lendl Simmons and Unmukt Chand, the visiting batsmen rose to the occasion and took the team to this season's highest total.

Other than opener Parthiv Patel's departure for 12, everything fell in place for the 2013 champions. Simmons and Chand, who returned for this game, followed up the opening stand of 47 with a 46-ball 78 and set the tone for a big score. Simmons was particularly aggressive and one of his two sixes hit the roof of the stadium.

After Simmons' departure for 59 off 44 balls, Rohit Sharma got in to the act and ran to 12 off his first five balls. In the following over, Chand picked up four fours off Weise, who had earlier removed Patel, to gallop to his first IPL fifty.

Rohit and Chand batted with such dominance that the Royal Challengers Bangalore could do nothing but watch their stroke-play in awe. Rohit took power-hitting to a new level in one Abu Nechim over where he hit three sixes and a four.

However, the quick fall of Chand, Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu and Rohit - the last three in the penultimate over by Weise - halted Mumbai Indians' progress a bit. Thanks to another debutant Hardik Pandya's two sixes in the last over, Mumbai Indians left the 19th over behind and reached the first 200-plus score this season.

Among the Royal Challengers Bangalore bowlers, only legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal and Weise succeeded in doing well on a pitch offering no assistance. That's why it was surprising to see the way the Royal Challengers Bangalore batsmen started off their chase.

Brief scores: Mumbai Indians 209/7 (Simmons 59, Chand 58, Rohit 42; Wiese 4/33, Chahal 2/28) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 191/7 (Weise 47*, de Villiers 41; Harbhajan 3/27 ) beat by 18 runs